Public Utilities Commission: regulated corporations: procurement.

(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical, gas, water, and telephone corporations. Existing law directs the commission to require every electrical, gas, water, and telephone corporation with annual gross revenues exceeding $25,000,000, and their regulated subsidiaries and affiliates, to implement a program developed by the commission to encourage, recruit, and utilize minority-, women-, and disabled veteran-owned business enterprises, as defined, in the procurement of contracts from those corporations or from their regulated subsidiaries and affiliates, and to require the reporting of certain information. The commission, by rulemaking, adopted General Order 156, applicable to certain electrical, gas, and telephone corporations, to effectuate these requirements. The commission is required to report to the Legislature on the implementation of these requirements. This bill would require the commission to include in this report information about which procurements are made with women, minority, and disabled veteran business enterprises with at least a majority of the enterprise's workforce in California, to the extent that information is readily accessible. (2) Existing law requires the commission to recommend a program and legislation for carrying out the policy of aiding the interests of women, minority, and disabled veteran business enterprises in order to preserve specified objectives. This bill would require the commission, in regard to disabled veteran business enterprises, to ensure that those recommended programs and legislation are consistent with the disabled veteran business enterprise certification eligibility requirements imposed by the Department of General Services and that the recommendations include only those disabled veteran business enterprises certified by the Department of General Services. (3) Existing law requires the commission, by rule or order, to adopt criteria for verifying and determining eligibility of women, minority, and disabled veteran business enterprises for procurement contracts. This bill would require the commission to adopt the Department of General Services' disabled veteran business enterprise certification eligibility requirements for verifying and determining eligibility of disabled veteran business enterprises for procurement contracts and would prohibit the commission from deeming eligible those disabled veteran business enterprises that are not certified by the Department of General Services. (4) Under existing law, a violation of any provision of the Public Utilities Act or any rules or orders of the commission is a crime. In addition, any person or corporation who falsely represents a business as a woman, minority, or disabled veteran business enterprise for the purposes of the programs discussed above is subject to criminal penalties. Because a violation of the requirements of the bill would be a crime under those provisions, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) This bill would incorporate additional changes in Sections 8281, 8283, and 8284 of the Public Utilities Code proposed by AB 1918 of the 2009–10 Regular Session that would become operative only if AB 1918 and this bill are both enacted and become effective before January 1, 2011, and this bill is enacted after AB 1918. (6) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.